16 Dec 2012: Willem II - Ajax

[Jojo]

Is it just me or we are being outplayed by the last team in Eredivisie?

Right after i posted this we scored

[Orange14]

NIce corner kick, flick and finish by Moisander. Now let's defend this damn lead!

[rjf1]

Well, that was a relief -- didn't have total confidence we would get another one -- let's hold on to it now.

[King Litti]

It's going to be a long 10 minutes. Our game has hardly been impressive, but the 3 points is all that matters in the end. Lets just hold on!

[Orange14]

That was nicely taken by Lukoki from de Jong. More like it!

[rjf1]

Lukoki! 4-2 -- job done!

[King Litti]

Can you be more accurate?

[ajaxcolombia]

Jody Lukoki should be starting on the right

[Orange14]

Should have been 4-0 but 3 points are what was needed and in the end received. Much better second half defensively though still spotty on offense. Off to Yoga now and will have my player ratings later on today.

[SPL]

A much better 2nd half and the defence did not fall asleep. Always confident the 3rd would come and the late 4th did not surprise me but somewhat flattered us. Willem did not play like the bottom team and made us work hard . I see the dutch TV viewers voted Siem MOM and I would agree he had a good game. Still do not think Eriksen looks like a 20 m rated player !

Pity the winter break did not start now as we have 2 tough away games later in the week.

[Tom_]

Not a memorable performance. We really seemed to be lacking width the entire game.

I thought de Jong was good. Eriksen had one of his "am I trying to win or lose?" days, and if Spurs want to pay 18 million euros for him I say sold. Also unimpressed by Fischer today.

[Orange14]

A very average performance against a side that had little if any defensive shape. There were large gaps in between the Willem II lines allowing for some very free passing opportunities some of which were capitalized on and others that were not because of too weak passing. Two of our three Danish starters were not very good today and the third had a good offensive match but two poor defensive decisions that led to goals from the opponent. The fourth Dane came on as a substitute late in the match and added some defense to preserve the win. I don't think FdB was particularly happy with the play today as this is a match that should have been won 5 or 6 to nil.

Player Ratings

Vermeer (7) - had one tough shot to stop and did so, otherwise he had very little to do in the match
Blind (6.5) - did a poor job on the first goal but otherwise was decent, continues to be a strong contributor going forward and most always makes the right pass
Moisander (7) - Couldn't tell if he was sucked out of position on the first goal or not but regardless he had a good match and made no mistake on the go ahead goal
Alderwiereld (7) - another good match and had a couple of very nice long passes to open men
van Rhijn (7) - no complaints about his play but he was hardly tested on defense
Schöne (6.5) - best of the Danes today but was totally lost on both Willem II goals, most of his passes were incisive and didn't lose the ball much at all
Eriksen (5.5) - other than the corner kick what did he do? Is he too preoccupied with moving abroad in January? Needs to get his head on straight as this was a very mediocre performance with many poor passes
de Jong (7.5) - probably the best player out there today and was very good on the ball, first goal was a bit of surprise and the header flick to Moisander was a thing of beauty
Fischer (5) - had absolutely no clue about what was going on out on the pitch, very poor
Hoesen (6.5) - would have been higher if he had held the ball up better on entry passes, got pushed off a little too easily
Boerrigter (6.5) - decent match but it's clear that he is not a long term solution as an every match player
Lukoki (6.5) - speed was again blinding and he had some decent plays
Poulsen (6.5) - made no mistakes coming in late for defensive duties

Midweek cup tie with Groningen and I expect that we will see some starters rested as we turn around on short rest to travel down to Utrecht. Will we finally beat them?? It would be nice to end the first half of the season plus one only a point away from the leaders. As in the past the second half will be highly competitive and I'm sticking by my usual prediction about it coming down to the last match day.

[SPL]

fair rating there Orange ie Siem was our best and Fischer our poorest on the day. Could do without a tough cup match v Groningen before Utrecht.

[Cruijff]

Good ratings.

[Kowalczyk]

Enjoyable game (six goals and all that), but definitely not a good game.

Nice day out.

K.